Maggots found in TCI food

ACLU wants ODRC to end contract

July 9, 2014

WARREN - The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio wants the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections to end its food service contract with Aramark Correctional Services now that reports of maggot-contaminated food and serving equipment at two Ohio prisons, including the Trumbull Correction Institution, have surfaced.

Aramark is a private company that has the $110 million contract to feed inmates in Ohio.

On Tuesday, the ACLU began calling on the ODRC to sever its contract with Aramark after The Dispatch in Columbus reported the same day of the maggot contamination.

The paper cited a state report from June 24 that said live maggots, which are fly larvae, were ''falling out of a warming tray'' at the Trumbull Correction Institution in Warren.

There were other reports of maggot incidents at the Ohio Reformatory for Women at Marysville, according to the paper.

Prison spokeswoman Jo Ellen Smith said contaminated food was not served to inmates and Aramark has brought in a third-party company to inspect food-service operations.

But the ACLU wants the contract canceled.

''This is not an isolated incident that prison officials can expect to solve without taking broader action,'' said Mike Brickner, ACLU senior policy director.